News Update
Efforts to add enforceable rights for rivers being advanced in five Florida counties
Staff Report
Enviro-Net
In the face of state and federal inaction on mounting ecological damage, grassroots groups in Alachua, Orange, Lee, Brevard and Osceola counties are advancing laws that recognize the legally enforceable rights of the Santa Fe River, Wekiva River, Econlockhatchee River, Caloosahatchee River, Indian River Lagoon and the Kissimmee River.
The laws are being proposed either through the citizens’ initiative process or through county charter review commissions.
In addition to the rights of nature, the laws recognize the rights of local residents to a healthy environment and clean water. Business entities and governments are prohibited from violating these rights. Efforts are aimed at giving Floridians the opportunity to vote on these measures in 2020.
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund assisted in drafting the measures as part of a growing movement to use municipal lawmaking to recognize the legal rights of ecosystems and to challenge corporate power and undemocratic forms of state preemption that have allowed the degradation of rivers, springs and aquifers in Florida.
The Florida laws are among the first in the nation to pursue recognition of rights for specific ecosystems. They follow the lead of the Lake Erie Bill of Right, passed by Toledo, OH, voters in February 2019.